{"id":630297,"date":"2026-03-03T23:41:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/630297\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T23:41:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:41:26","slug":"n-y-schools-making-tough-decisions-due-to-low-enrollment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/630297\/","title":{"rendered":"N.Y. schools making tough decisions due to low enrollment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran educator Shelly O&#8217;Boyle is leading a potential merger study of three Chautauqua County school districts, Clymer, Sherman and Panama.<\/p>\n<p>She says her job is to work with all three boards of education and superintendents to make sure each district and its identity is equally represented during the process.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is not [a done deal] and I am very adamant in saying that to you, as well as to the community, because the boards really are looking for input. They&#8217;re looking to hear from their communities, they&#8217;re looking to examine the data,&#8221; said O&#8217;Boyle.<\/p>\n<p><b>What You Need To Know<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Many school districts in the state are facing low enrollment<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>Because of low enrollment and other issues, districts are making tough choices<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>Three upstate districts are conducting a merger study<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The study kicked off in January, but the idea is the result of an exit poll during last year&#8217;s budget vote, as each school has between 300-400 students.<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Boyle says while there are advantages and challenges to a merger, the goal is to ensure students are provided academic, athletic and extracurricular opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Because that&#8217;s what it&#8217;s really about, right? You want to make sure that the students in your district have equal opportunities as other districts throughout the state,&#8221; said\u00a0O&#8217;Boyle.<\/p>\n<p>Christine Schnars, president of the State School Boards Association, says most districts are concerned about state aid and declining enrollment.<\/p>\n<p>She says 90% of districts in the state have seen a decline, and a loss of more than 250,000 students in the last decade.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is alarming. When enrollment drops, state aid drops. And when you take those children out of your district, that also takes that money out of the district,&#8221; said\u00a0Christine Schnars, president, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyssba.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NYS School Boards Association.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>She says families leaving the state and a growing number of homeschoolers are just two of the reasons why.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, districts have to make tough decisions that include closing a school building or exploring a merger.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And I don&#8217;t want to see any district in the state where there are kids who are less fortunate and can&#8217;t get what they need, and go out into the world and try to compete with those that are in districts that can compete,&#8221; said Schnars.<\/p>\n<p>Which is why\u00a0O&#8217;Boyle says after a series of public meetings, the firm hired to do the study will compile the data, including financial information from BOCES and state ed, to present to each board.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My most important role is making sure that all three districts come to a consensus as to how we&#8217;re moving forward,&#8221; said O&#8217;Boyle.<\/p>\n<p>State leaders credit BOCES for helping combat some of the challenges districts face, saying its programs give these smaller districts opportunities they may not be getting because there aren&#8217;t enough students in the classroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran educator Shelly O&#8217;Boyle is leading a potential merger study of three Chautauqua County school districts, Clymer, Sherman&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":630298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,16549,17546,407,268872,405,403,17050,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,5981,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5284],"class_list":["post-630297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-app-education","tag-buffalo","tag-education","tag-mark-goshgarian","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state","tag-news","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-swarm","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vod"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116167895986652747","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}